Bradenton Herald

Bradenton Herald, The (FL)

May 12, 2003

SPECIAL REPORT: CLEANING UP PINEY POINT: 'RIGHT THING IN THE WRONG PLACE'

	Author:
	Kevin O'Horan, Herald Staff Writer

Edition: BRADENTON
Section: front
Page: 1A 
Dateline: PINEY POINT 

Estimated printed pages: 3

Article Text:
Second in a two-part series
	
PINEY POINT --- At once, it was ideally situated and abjectly out of place, the erstwhile Piney Point phosphate plant.   Plunked down on a 700-acre tract of land across U.S. 41 from Port Manatee, it offered the best in linking west-central Florida's rich reserves of phosphate rock with points around the globe eager for crop-producing fertilizers.

 But that also meant plunking down a plant that churned out billions of gallons of acidic, metal-laden wastewater on the shores of Tampa Bay, a vast body of shallow water that harbors everything from marine life to mariners.

 "It's the right thing in the wrong place," said David White, regional director for The Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group. "It didn't have to be located next to one of the country's best estuaries."

 It's a thought voiced frequently by White and his peers, with little dispute. Though resigned to easing spill risks at the plant by shipping its stores of wastewater deep into the Gulf of Mexico for disposal, they say it never should have come to this.

 Hop in the "wayback" machine, they say, and set the dial to 1966.

 Then, leaders with Borden Inc. were seeking permission from Florida regulators on a project to build a plant that would take phosphate rock and turn it into fertilizer products shipped worldwide.

 The sides ultimately agreed to put the plant on Piney Point ground and, critics contend, immediately imperiled the bay.

 "That was one of the worst locations that could have been chosen in the state of Florida to put a phosphogypsum stack," said Glenn Compton, chairman of ManaSota-88, a watchdog group.

 "It's so close to Bishop's Harbor, and in proximity to the (Terra Ceia) Aquatic Preserve."

 Compton's comments of gypsum stacks refer to the huge, earthen-walled ponds at phosphate processing plants --- such as the Piney Point plant that ended up in the hands of Mulberry Corp.

 The ponds hold millions of gallons of water used in the fertilizer-production process.

 Water tainted by sulfuric and phosphoric acids, metals, ammonia and phosphorous.

 Toxic water, just a leak away from the bay.

 And the leak at Piney Point came in the first year. A dike rupture released the tainted water to ditches ringing the plant, ditches that carried the water to Bishop's Harbor and eventually to Tampa Bay.

 Countless more --- some large enough to require reporting, others legal by definition, still others mandated as "emergency" releases by regulators --- have followed in the years since.

 "There have been a tremendous amount of discharges to Bishop's Harbor, to Tampa Bay," said Peter Clark, director of Tampa BayWatch, a nonprofit activist group.

 "All of them could have been avoided by locating the plant away from the bay."

 Industry representatives agree --- to a degree.

 The Piney Point plant, they concede, has for 37 years been a mishap followed by a misstep followed again by a mishap, each time fouling the bay or threatening to.

 "The problem with Mulberry," said Robert Hugli, a lobbyist for the Florida Phosphate Council, "was it came in on good times and couldn't hold on in bad times. You've got to have staying power in this business."

 But, Hugli said, drive north on U.S. 41 and you'll see that location doesn't necessarily mean problems. There, on the banks of the Alafia River and yards from Tampa Bay, Cargill Fertilizer Inc. has operated a plant for eight decades without major problems.

 "Look at the excellent job there, and the good neighbor they are," he said.

 And environmentalists agree --- to a degree.

 They generally laud the efforts by Cargill, while pointing out a series of issues that plagued Piney Point: lax standards for building the stacks, ineffective spill response plans and not requiring owners put up enough money to cover closing costs.

 And, of course, location.

 "The state, in all its wisdom, allowed this to be sited next to one of the world's magnificent estuaries," said White, of The Ocean Conservancy. "Now it's an emergency, and they want to take the easiest way out."

Caption:
PHOTOS/GRANT JEFFERIES/The Herald
 The Mulberry Corp. abandoned the Piney Point phosphate plant after filing for bankruptcy in February 2001. Below, contaminated water is poured into transport trucks at Piney Point in June 2002. JUDITH KAINE/Special to The HeraldCopyright (c) 2003 The Bradenton Herald
Record Number: 0305120345